We’ve been busy speaking to former Player of the Year winners since its’ inception in 1968, as we look ahead to the 5,000th game upon resumption and today our recipient of the Sir Tom Finney Trophy is 2014 winner and modern-day favourite, Joe Garner.
Garns talks to us about his decision to join his boyhood club and about having scored against the club and giving a bit of stick to his family earlier on in the same season, who were sat in the Alan Kelly Town End!
He speaks about his early days under Graham Westley and the arrival of Simon Grayson and the players who came in and made his life as a striker easier, such as the creativity of Paul Gallagher.
He discusses his goalscoring form and his stunning Play-Off strike at home to Rotherham United and his superb form in the 2014/15 campaign with three hat-tricks, the League One player of the year award and promotion at Wembley.
One of the many memorable stories he recalls is from the Fleetwood Town game, when he was made captain for the only time in his career so far and he talks about his determination to get a result, as he scored a second half hat-trick to win the game from 2-0 down – very similar to Monday’s fellow forward John Thomas, who achieved the same back in September 1986 against Halifax Town!
To watch the full interview with the now Wigan Athletic forward just click on the video at the top of the page, for what will surely be one of the most popular winners of the Player of the Year award down the years.
If you want to see all the interviews that have been conducted so far, including Aiden McGeady, Youl Mawene and Richard Cresswell, or can’t wait for the upcoming ones with the likes of Greg Cunningham – who will be online tomorrow - click here for our Player of the Year section of the official PNE website.